Curator - Designer - Consultant

Picture

“Give me a museum and I’ll fill it.”  - Pablo Picasso

NoirTech Research has been the Designer, Provider and/or Consultant of several nationally touring exhibits on the Negro Baseball Leagues, African American Heritage Stamps, along with showcases of Black Americans on coins & currency.

Art by award-winning artist Kadir Nelson

Pride & Passion: The African American Baseball Experience

Pride & Passion
Lester served as text editor and fact checker. This exhibit is owned by the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum and sponsored by the American Library Association.

Beginning in the late 19th century, African American baseball was the seedbed for talented players who would eventually pave the way to an integrated sport.  Dozens of barnstorming black teams were playing around the country by 1920, the founding year of the Negro National League.  

By examining the challenges faced by African-American players as they formed their own leagues and later integrated the Major Leagues in the mid-20th century, Pride & Passion illustrates how these milestones in baseball were not only individual points of significance in themselves, but part of an ongoing process in American society. 

Stamps of Recognition:

stamps of recognition
This is an 80-panel exhibit of 60 prominent Jazz greats, abolitionists, writers, historians, actors and entertainers using stamps, currency, and coins as mediums.

In foreign countries, not bound by the U.S. 10-year moratorium period, living legends such as Muhammad Ali and Michael Jackson are honored on postage stamps. In fact, more than 100 countries have issued stamps of Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.

Develop and design by Lester this exhibit communicates the proud history of African Americans around the world, and their cultural contributions in the shaping of America.

The exhibit toured nationally for three years and was designed by Smith-Kramer Fine Arts and owned by NoirTech Research, Inc. This exhibit is currently retired and housed in the Lester Archives.

The National Pastime in Black & White: The Negro Baseball Leagues, 1867-1955

This pictorial history of black baseball, toured nationally for four years, 2003 to 2006, in museum, libraries and academic institutions around America. Lester provided more than 60 vintage photographs, along with game-used equipment, stadium seats, and programs. He also served as text editor & fact checker. Designed and promoted by Exhibits USA.

​A Laughing Matter:
​Black Sitcoms in Review, 1950 to 2000
​A Laughing Matter is about negotiating the authenticity of Black life in American culture, using stereotypes that peel back the layers of embedded systemic challenges, with hopes of increasing your awareness about marginalized people of color through situation comedies. Examine what each sitcom, over a 50-year period, reveals about us. 
Click for Program Guide here. Available for rent.

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Other Exhibits:

  • ​Developed original static exhibits at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (1990-1994).
  • Text writer for the Negro Leagues exhibit at Comiskey Park for the Chicago White Sox, 1992.
  • Developed and designed a Homestead Grays & Pittsburgh Crawfords exhibit for the Pittsburgh Pirates, 1996.
  • Provided photographs and historical information on the Philadelphia Stars for the Philadelphia Phillies' Citizens Bank Park, 2004.

  • The HELP - The story of African American Maids on the Silver Screen (2019) 

​Click for Program Guide here. Available for rent.